“Anna Bolena” by Gaetano Donizetti libretto (English)

Contents: Characters; Act 1; Act 2; Act 3

Act 1

Scene 1

A room in Windsor castle in the apartments of the Queen.
The place is lit up. Numerous people come and go on every side:
some walk and talk together: some remain seated etc.

CHORUS I OF KNIGHTS:
(in low voices)

Is the King coming?

CHORUS II OF KNIGHTS:
Nothing but silence.
He hasn’t come yet.

CHORUS I OF KNIGHTS:
And she?

CHORUS II OF KNIGHTS:
Her heart groans but she covers it up.

CHORUS I OF KNIGHTS:
Her star is setting now.

ALL:
Henry’s fickle heart
burns with another love.

CHORUS I OF KNIGHTS:
Everyone is talking about it.

CHORUS II OF KNIGHTS:
The dark
looks of the Sovereign…

CHORUS I OF KNIGHTS:
His short manner of speech…

CHORUS II OF KNIGHTS:
The way he suddenly
keeps his distance from her…

ALL:
A sudden calming
of his jealous mood.

TOGETHER:
Oh, how swiftly the lightening
descends on her head!

How justice avenges
the banished Aragon!
Perhaps, poor woman,
there is stored up for her
greater shame and pain…

Scene 2

Giovanna Seymour and above

JANE:
She has asked for me
more eagerly than usually.
She…why? what a fearful thing!
What a doubt has arisen within me!
Before my victim
my heart loses all courage.
Either render me deaf to remorse
or extinguish yourself in me, Love.

Scene 3

Anna appears from the back followed by her ladies,
pages and servants. All make way for her and respectfully
form a circle around her. Smeton is in the cortege. Silence.

ANNA:
So silent and sad
have I never seen the assembly…
Even you,
once so happy, cannot summon

(to Seymour)

a smile to your lips.

JANE:
And who could show themselves
to be serene
when they see their Queen afflicted

ANNA:
Afflicted I truly am…
Nor do I know why…
an unknown, uneasy restlessness
has stolen my peace for a few days.

SMEATON:
(Poor woman!)

JANE:
(I fear every word of hers)

ANNA:
Smeton, where is he?

SMEATON:
My Queen!

ANNA:
Come close to me.
Do you now wish for a short time
to cheer my court with your melodies
until the king has arrived?

JANE:
(My heart, you can breathe again.)

ANNA:
Ladies, take your places.

SMEATON:
(Oh! love, inspire me.)

(All sit. The courtiers arrange themselves here and there in groups. A harp is given to Smeton. He plays for a while then sings the following ballad.)

Ah! Do not desire to constrain
your face to feigned joy:
your sorrow is as lovely
as your smile.
Thus is the dawn still beautiful
when girded with clouds,
the melancholy moon
is lovely in its pallor.

(Anna becomes more thoughtful.
Smeton continues in a more animated voice)

Who beholds you thus pensive and silent, would believe you
to be an innocent maiden who sighs for her first love:
and forgetting the crown which covers your head, will sigh
with you, and he would feel that he was that first love.

ANNA:
(rises, moved)

Cease…Alas! Cease…

SMEATON:
My Queen! Oh heavens!

CHORUS:
(She is troubled, oppressed.)

ANNA:
(How that innocent boy,
how he has shaken my heart!
The ashes of my first love
are still warm!
Ah! if my heart was not open
to another attachment,
I would not be so unhappy
in this vain splendour of mine.)

(to the onlookers)

But little remains of the night now
I believe.

CHORUS:
Dawn is close to breaking…

ANNA:
Sirs, I give you your leave.
It is vain to wait in hope any more
that the King will come now.
Let us go, Seymour.

(leans towards her)

JANE:
What troubles you?

ANNA:
Could you but read it within me!
To no gaze has it been granted
to penetrate this sad heart;
An incomprehensible
cruel fate condemns me
to sigh in sorrow.
Ah! if ever the splendour
of the royal throne
seduces you,
remember my pain
don’t let yourself be dazzled.

JANE:
(I dare not raise my eyes to her,
nor can I make bold to speak)

CHORUS:
(A few moments of rest
might give her some sleep.)

(Anna leaves, accompanied by Seymour and by the maids.
The company depart gradually. The stage empties and there
remains no light but one large lamp stand which lights the room.)

Scene 4

Giovanna returns from the departments of the Queen. She is disturbed.

JANE:
Oh! what words were hers!
My heart condemned me!
Betrayed perhaps,
will I be discovered?
Did she read the misdeed
on my countenance? Ah, no, she clasped me
tenderly to her bosom;
she remains ignorant that
she has clasped a serpent.
Would that I could at least
have withdrawn
my feet from this abyss;
and have prevented the time
from happening; Ah! my fate is sealed,
sealed in Heaven as the final day.

(there is a knocking at the door, she goes to open it)

Behold…behold the King…

Scene 5

Enrico and above.

HENRY:
Are you trembling?

JANE:
Yes, I'm trembling.

HENRY:
What is she doing?

JANE:
She is resting.

HENRY:
I'm not.

JANE:
Do you think that I am at rest?
Let this be our last colloquy…
the last, o Sire:
I implore you…

HENRY:
And that it will be.
We must see each other
in plain daylight
Heaven and Earth must know
that I love you.

JANE:
Never, never…
I would want to hide my shame
beneath the earth.

HENRY:
It is glory, the love of Henry
And thus it was for Anna
in the eyes of all of England.

JANE:
After marriage it was…
Only after marriage.

HENRY:
And does Seymour love me
in this guise?

JANE:
And does the King also love me thus?
HENRY:
Thankless girl, and what do you desire?

JANE:
Love and honour.

HENRY:
Honour! Yes: you will have it and such
that in the world there is no equal;
my splendour will pour out over you completely
only on you.
Seymour will have no rival,
as the sun has no rival.

JANE:
My honour is at the feet of the alter:
elsewhere shame is put by for me:
and that altar is forbidden to me,
Heaven knows that, the King knows it.
Ah! If it is true
that I am dear to the King
then my honour too will be dear.

HENRY:
(resentfully)

Yes…I understand you.

JANE:
Oh Heavens! And are you so full
of disdain?

HENRY:
It is disdain and pain.

JANE:
Sire!

HENRY:
Do you only love the King?

JANE:
I?...

HENRY:

Does the throne alone concern you?
Anna too offered me love,
longing for the English throne,
she too coveted the crown
of the lofty lady of Aragon…
She had it at last,
but she no sooner had it,
than it tottered on her head,
to her cost, to her grief
my heart was tempted by another lady.

JANE:
Ah! not I, I did not offer to you
this heart to cause wrongful offense…
My King took it from me,
let my King give it back to me.
More unhappy than Bolena
I will cry more.
I will have the pain of repudiation,
without having offended a husband.

(Jane goes off weeping)

HENRY:
You are leaving me?

JANE:
I must.

HENRY:
Stop.

JANE:
I cannot.
HENRY:
Stop: I wish it.
The altar is already prepared for you:
you will have a husband
and sceptre and a throne.

JANE:
Heavens! And Anna?

HENRY:
Heavens! And Anna?

JANE:
Ah! Sire

HENRY:
The day has arrived for her punishment.

JANE:
Ah! For what crime?

HENRY:
The blackest.
She gave me a heart that was not hers…
she deceived me
before she was my wife;
as my wife she deceives me still.

JANE:
And your bond to her?

HENRY:
The King unties it.

JANE:
By what means?

HENRY:
I alone know how.

JANE:
Ah! what they might be
I dare not seek to know…
The oppressed heart doesn't permit it.
but let me hope
that it might not be by cruelty.
May a royal husband
not cost me further remorse
I beg of you.

HENRY:
Reassure your doubtful heart,
let your King set your mind at rest…
that he may see you
happier from now on
with the love that made you his.
Your peace, your quiet,
I want it to be complete,
and thus it will be.

(Henry leaves by the secret door. Jane enters the apartments.)

Scene 6

A park in Windsor castle. It is day.
Percy and Rochefort from different directions.

ROCHEFORT:
(on meeting)

Who do I see?…In England

(they embrace)

You, my Percy!

PERCY:
I was recalled here, friend
by an order from Henry…
and my decision is
to present myself to him
on his passage to the hunt.
After such a long exile,
breathing the ancient airs
and the native skies
are sweet to every heart
but bitter to mine.

ROCHEFORT:
Dear Percy, sorrow
has not so changed you
that I was not quick
to recognise you.

PERCY:
My sorrow is not one
that is matched by my face:
everything is gathered
deep in my heart.
I dare not, my friend,
enquire about the fate of your sister…

ROCHEFORT:
She is Queen. This is all her joy.

PERCY:
And does rumour speak true?
That she is unhappy?
That the King has changed?

ROCHEFORT:
Does happiness ever last?

PERCY:
Well said…let him live
without hope, as I do.

ROCHEFORT:
Lower your voice.

PERCY:
What should I fear?
From that day in which I lost her
I went in desperation, into exile,
from that day when I crossed the sea,
my death began
Every ray of light was changed for me
I separated myself from the living,
every land on which I came to rest
seemed a tomb to me.

ROCHEFORT:
And you’ve come
to make your condition worse
close to her?

PERCY:
Without mind, without heart,
blindly I follow my destiny.
It's just that sometimes,
in my fiercest pain
the certainty smiles into my thoughts
that fortune
will vindicate my sufferings.

(the sound of the hunt is heard)

ROCHEFORT:
The hunt is assembling…
Be quiet: someone could hear you.

Scene 7

Troops of huntsmen enter from every side:
all is movement at the back of the stage, pages,
stable hands, men armed with pikes, etc

CHORUS:
Look out! the pages, the stable hands
are running around…
the greyhounds are ready
saddle the chargers…
more eagerly than usual
the King rides out today.

PERCY:
And Anna also!…

ROCHEFORT:
Calm down.
Perhaps she is not with him

PERCY:
Ah! thus in those smiling days
of my first happy love
I felt my heart beat
when I had to see her.
Merciful Heaven, give me back
just one of those
sweet and lovely moments;
then take my life from me again
that I might die in peace.

CHORUS:
The King is approaching: line up...
Give honour to the King.

Scene 8

All those present array themselves in two lines.
Rochefort takes Percy to one side with him.
Enter Enrico and passes in the middle of the rows.
Meanwhile, amongst them, Anna is revealed with her ladies.
Little by little, Percy places himself so that Henry can see him.
Hervey and the guards.

HENRY:
Awake so early, and taken today
from your rest.

ANNA:
In me, the desire to see you
was stronger than the desire to rest.
Several days have now passed
without my enjoying
the appearance of my lord.

HENRY:
Many serious cares weigh on my heart. Now my attention
is completely on you: my vigilant gaze does not turn from you
for one single moment.
You here, Percy?

ANNA:
(Heavens! What do I see!…Riccardo!)

HENRY:
Come closer.

PERCY:
(I'm afraid)

HENRY:
You were truly prompt…

PERCY:
Each moment, o Sire
that I was delayed in revealing
my thankful heart, might seem an error to others'
to me it seemed a crime.
The hand which when I was banished
gave me back my homeland and old home,
I kiss in devotion…

HENRY:
Not the hand of Henry.
Assurance was given
of your innocence a long time ago
by one who being nourished and brought up with you
knew the purity of your spirit.
It was Anna, in fact…

PERCY:
Anna!

ANNA:
(Do not betray me, O my heart!)

PERCY:
You, the Queen!…Then it was really true
that you took thought of me!

ANNA:
Innocent…the whole kingdom believes you
to be and defends you…

HENRY:
And innocent I believed you to be,
since thus you seemed to her…
All the kingdom, believe me,
was surety for you in vain.

PERCY:
Ah, Queen?

(He kneels at her feet and kisses her hand)

ANNA:
Oh God! Get up.

ROCHEFORT:
(He losing control!)

HENRY:
(with the greatest indifference)

Hervey.

HERVEY:
Sire.

(Percy approaches Rochefort.
Enrico withdraws in the opposite direction with Hervey.
Ann in the middle, forces herself to hide her perturbation.)

ANNA:
(I felt his tear flow
on my hand…
and an even hotter flame
spreads though my heart.)

PERCY:
(to Rochefort)

(Ah! She thought of me far away:
she couldn’t bear my wandering
my heart forgets every anguishI am born again, I hope once more)

ROCHEFORT:
(to Percy)

(Ah! What are you doing? Control yourself, madman.
Every eye is turned on you,
you’ve turned pale, on your face is written
the disorder of your heart.)

HENRY:
To you awaits the task
of ensuring that the great design is not in vain;
be the constant examiner
of every step, of every word.

HERVEY:
(to Henry)

(Not in vain does my Sovereign
entrust in me his design;
I will be, I pledge my oath,
the executor of his orders.)

CHORUS:
(Whatever is happening? Why is the King so mild
to humane today, so happy of countenance?
His smile is deceptive,
precursor of fury.)

HENRY:
(to Percy with the greatest kindness)

Now so that you may be delivered back to the shores
of your homeland and fully absolved,
I very much hope that you will remain
in my court amongst my most faithful men.

PERCY:
Gloomy, O Sire, by nature,
destined to an obscure life…
I would ill know how…

HENRY:
(interrupting him)

No, no, I desire it.
Rochefort, I entrust him to you.
Let us now leave for the hunt…

(with indifference)
Anna, farewell.

ANNA:
(curtseying)

I am beside myself with sorrow.

(The horns give the signal of the hunt.
All move having formed into various groups.)

ALL:
May this day which dawned
with such happy and lucky auspices,
shine, crowned
with even happier successes.

PERCY and ANNA:
(Ah! may there not be trouble for me
by the time that the day ends.
May a friendly fate guide another prey
into my nets.)

(Anna leaves with her ladies, Henry with all the followers of the hunt.
Rochefort takes Percy with him in another direction.)

Scene 9

A room in the castle which leads into the rooms of Anna

SMEATON:
(alone)

All is deserted…Intent on their duties
the maids are in other rooms…
and if any should see me here she knows
that in these innermost rooms,
once Anna invited me
to sing to her privately.
This which I took

(he reveals a portrait in his breast)

her beloved image, I must return
before my boldness is discovered,
one more kiss, a kiss,
beloved countenance…Farewell beauty
which rested on my heart,
and which seemed to beat with my heart
Ah! it seems as if by magic
it had responded to your sufferings:
every tear drop of mine
was aroused by one of your sighs.
To such a sight, a bold heart
full of hope and desire
unveiled its hungry ardour
which I dare not reveal any other way.

(goes to re-enter the apartments)

I hear a sound…someone
is approaching this room…I delayed too long.

(he hides behind a curtain)

Scene 10

Anna and Rochefort.

ANNA:
Watch out, watch out
you are going too far…
you persist too much, O brother….

ROCHEFORT:
Let it please you to listen to him
for a single moment: believe it, you
cannot run into any danger
though he does, and grave danger,
your strictness combined with sorrow
overcomes all reason in him.

ANNA:
Stop it! To think that I was the cause of his return!
Well…lead him to me, and keep
careful watch that no one gets to us
who isn't faithful to me.

ROCHEFORT:
Rely on me.

(exits)

Scene 11

Anna and Smeton, hidden.

SMEATON:
(appearing, cautiously)

(Can’t I come out? What’s to be done!)

ANNA:
I was weak…I should have firmly denied him...
Never to see him… Alas! in vain
does reason advise me:
the craven heart does not listen to its voice.

Scene 12

Percy and Anna.

ANNA:
There he is! I’m trembling! I’m cold!

PERCY:
Anna!…

ANNA:
Riccardo! Let our words be brief,
cautious, low. Have you come perhaps
to reproach me with my broken pledge? The penalty, you see,
I have paid the full penalty for it: ambitious, I wanted a crown,
and a crown I received, of thorns.

PERCY:
I see you unhappy, and my anger has an end;
you see my brow furrowed with sorrow:
I pardon you for it:
I feel that close to you,
I could forget the anguish of the past
as the shipwrecked pilot
forgets the billows
when he reaches the shore.
Every cruel tempest calms itself near you
and from you comes my light.

ANNA:
Wretch, what hope now seduces you?
Don’t you know that I am a wife, that I am the Queen?

PERCY:
Ah! do not say it, I must not,
I do not want to know.
To me you are Anna, only Anna,
and am I not your same Riccardo
who loved you for so long,
who first taught you to love?…
And does not the King hate you?

ANNA:
He hates me, it is true.

PERCY:
If he hates you, I still love you
as I first loved you in your lowly state
Forget with me your ungrateful husband’s
contempt and sternness

ANNA:
Ah! you do not know that my bonds
are as sacred as they are dreadful,
that beside me on the throne
are seated suspicion and terror.
Ah! never again, if it is true that you love me,
speak with me of love.

PERCY:
Ah! Cruel woman.

ANNA:
Madman.
Flee, I beg you to.

PERCY:
No, never…

ANNA:
Fate places between us
an invincible barrier.

PERCY:
I scorn it.

ANNA:
Let the new dawn
not find you in England.

PERCY:
Ah! Let it find me a corpse under the ground
and yet with you.

ANNA:
Flee.

PERCY:
No.

ANNA:
Riccardo! Ah!
From pity for my fear,
for the horror in which you see me
give way to my please, to my tears give way;
earth and sea divide us.
Seek elsewhere a contentment for your heart
which isn’t a bitter pleasure.

PERCY:
At your feet, pierced and dead
I will fall if you ask for it

but grant only that I remain and sigh
Near to you , suffering and pain
are contentment to me.

ANNA:
(resolved)

Leave, I wish it;
another could hear you within these walls.

PERCY:
I will leave, but first tell me,
will I see you? Promise…swear.

ANNA:
No: never again.

PERCY:
Never again! Let this
be my reply to your oath.
(unsheathes his sword to stab himself)

ANNA:
(letting out a cry)

Ah! What are you doing! Pitiless man.

Scene 13

Smeton and above.

SMEATON:
Stop!

ANNA:
Righteous Heavens!

PERCY:
Don’t come any closer.

(They want to throw themselves at each other.)

ANNA:
Alas! Stop…I am lost.
Someone is coming…I can bear no more.

(she falls onto a seat)

Scene 14

Rochefort runs in, terrified.

ROCHEFORT:
Ah! sister…

SMEATON:
She has fainted.

ROCHEFORT:
The King is coming.

PERCY and ROCHEFORT:
The King!

Scene 15

Enter Enrico and Hervey.

HENRY:
What do I see?
Hands bearing weapons within these portals!
Drawn swords in my palace!
Ho! Guards!

Scene 16

At the voice of the King, courtiers, ladies, pages
and soldiers come running. Later Giovanna Seymour.

PERCY:
Contrary fate!!

CHORUS:
Whatever is happening?

SMEATON and ROCHEFORT:
What to say? What to do?

(a short silence)

HENRY:
Everyone is silent and everyone trembles!
What misdeed is taking place here?
I read in your countenance
that my shame is complete:
the whole kingdom is witness
that she has betrayed the King.

SMEATON:
Sire…Ah! Sire…It isn’t true.
I swear it at your feet.

HENRY:
Are you so brazen. So expert already
at betrayal, O youth?

SMEATON:
Kill me if I’m lying;
bared and unarmed
I offer you my breast.

(Anna’s portrait falls out)

HENRY:
What ornament is this?

SMEATON:
Oh heavens!

HENRY:
What I see
my own eyes can scarcely believe.
Behold the true accuser
of his bold betrayal

PERCY and ANNA:
Oh! What anguish!

SMEATON and ROCHEFORT:
Oh! What terror!

ANNA:
Where am I! Oh my lord!

(Recovers herself, approaches Henry: he is fuming.
All are silent and lower their eyes.)

Stamped on these faces
I see your suspicion;
but I ask for mercy,
do not condemn me, O King.
Let this oppressed heart
recover itself for a bit.

HENRY:
In my hand behold the proof
of your abominable intemperance.
Tears won't help;
depart far from me.
It would be better for you now
if you were able to die.

PERCY:
(Heavens! A rival in him.
A rival of mine happy!
And the deceiver wanted
to banish me from her?
Let all the wrath of fate
be poured out on you, in me now.)

JANE:
May I be able to find myself
close to the unhappy ones, O Heaven.
Is not my heart as if overtaken
by horror, by ice?
My black excesses
extinguished every virtue in me.

SMEATON and ROCHEFORT:
Ah! I myself have ruined her,
I have intensified her misfortune!
The day turns to darkness for me.
I can barely stand up.
It would be better for me
if I could die now

HENRY:
To separate prisons
let them be taken.

ANNA:
All! Alas! Sire…

HENRY:
Go away!

ANNA:
Only one word…

HENRY:
Get back!
Not I, the judges alone
should hear your excuses.

ANNA:
Judges…for Anna!

PERCY, SMEATON and ROCHEFORT:
Alas, poor girl!

JANE and CHORUS:
(Her death is marked!)

ANNA:
(Ah! My fate is sealed,
if the one who accuses me is the one who condemns me.
Ah! I will succumb to the power
of such a tyrannical law.
But after my death
I will one day be exculpated and absolved.)

HENRY:
(Yes, your fate is sealed,
if only I could have a suspect
Whoever shares my throne
can have no stain on earth.
I will feel sorry for your death
but I will still give you death.)

PERCY, JANE,SMEATON and ROCHEFORT:
(Ah! My fate is sealed; every attempt to escape it is vain.
No skill on earth or human strength can allay it now.
Death is already in my heart and I'm not even dead yet.)

CHORUS:
(Ah! By how many adverse evil fates is the English throne
afflicted. A more deadly one has not descended on it
than that which has broken forth here.
Innocence has the death here which sin plotted.)

Contents: Characters; Act 1; Act 2; Act 3